The Court Report: James Wiseman is latest in troubling pattern of top NBA Draft picks missing games in college

Hello, loyal readers! Today, we bring back the Court Report, our weekly feature that highlights a handful of interesting college hoops stories, trends and statistics all in one place. It's a grab bag of basketball goodies for the enthusiastic college hoops fan. You can expect to hear and learn from coaches, players and/or administrators in this space every week.

The NCAA's decision to suspend James Wiseman for 12 games came immediately abutted with criticism. Memphis will appeal the punishment in hopes of getting Wiseman's suspension down to the single digits of games missed, but how successful that will be is unknown. For more perspective on the entire saga, be sure to listen to podcast below and read Gary Parrish's column on Memphis' tactics miscarrying.

Obviously the Wiseman takes are in deep supply at this point. So I won't add another log to the pile. Instead I'd like to draw some attention to a larger pattern affecting college basketball. Wiseman's suspension is the latest instance of a player, who months later will become a top 10 NBA Draft pick, but prior to that runs up against a circumstance that takes him out of action for a not-insignificant portion of the schedule. 

If you've thought to yourself, It seems like college basketball has some sort of big story every season affecting a prominent player's ability to play in games, you'd be correct. Here are 10 notable players from the past seven years who missed a portion of the college basketball season. 

2012-13: Kentucky's Nerlens Noel tore his left ACL in UK's game against Florida and played in 24 of the Wildcats' 33 games. Noel's injury torpedoed Kentucky's season; it's the only one under John Calipari in which UK did not make the NCAA Tournament. Noel was the No. 6 pick in that year's draft. 

2013-14: Joel Embiid blossomed into a fascinating big-man prospect but late in the season suffered a back injury that took him out of Kansas' March run. He played in 28 of KU's 35 games, and since he was unavailable in the NCAA Tournament, Kansas failed to make the Sweet 16 as a No. 2 seed. Embiid was the No. 3 pick in that year's draft.

Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart is subject to one of the biggest stories on this list. He missed three games due to suspension after shoving a Texas Tech fan near the end of a game. Smart said he was provoked by the man using racist language. He was the No. 6 pick in that year's draft. 

2014-15: While there was no top-10 pick who suffered in-season injury or eligibility issues, college basketball was deprived of a top-10 talent due to the eligibility case of Emmanuel Mudiay, who committed to SMU. Mudiay attended the now-defunct Prime Prep, a shoddy high school out of Texas that lacked proper core courses to meet requirements set by the NCAA's eligibility center.  Without Mudiay, the Mustangs were still solid -- a No. 6 seed in the NCAAs -- but could have been very good had the eventual No. 7 pick been able to play.

2016-17: Washington's Markelle Fultz, from an individual standpoint, had one of the stronger freshman seasons of the past decade. But UW was a horrid 9-22 and Fultz's availability waned as the season went on. He played in 25 of the Huskies' 31 games that season before becoming the No. 1 in the 2017 NBA Draft. At the time, the nature of his injuries wasn't totally clear ... which then exacerbated his issues once he got to the NBA. 

You might have forgotten, but Duke's Jayson Tatum also had injury woes to start his career. That's the reason Tatum wasn't a First Team All-American, really. He played in 29 of Duke's 38 games that season, missing time because of a foot injury. Once Tatum made his way to the court, he was a clear-cut top five freshman in the sport and was taken third in the draft. 

2017-18: No injury issues of significance among 2018 picks, but there were two players whose eligibility came into question due to their connection to the FBI's investigation into college basketball recruiting. The most infamous moment was in late February when ESPN reported Sean Miller was caught on FBI wiretap discussing six-figure payments for Deandre Ayton. That has never been proven. Ayton played in all of Arizona's games but it became a dramatic sideshow to the season. Ayton was taken No. 1 overall.

On a smaller scale, Collin Sexton missed three of Alabama's game that season. Sexton's recruitment was one of many layers tied to 10 men who were charged in the government's sting on college hoops. Sexton was taken No. 8 in the 2018 draft.

2018-19: The biggie. Duke's Zion Williamson played in 32 of 38 games (officially 33, but he was on the floor for less than three minutes before blowing out his shoe and hurting his knee against UNC). Williamson's injury became big news and put gasoline on the NCAA amateurism debate. Millions (billions, maybe?) of words were yakked over whether Williamson should even play again in college after the shoe/knee debacle. He was, of course, taken No. 1 in this year's draft. 

Williamson wasn't the only top 10 pick of 2019 who sat out because of injury. Vanderbilt's Darius Garland missed more games than any other player on this list, having only gotten on the court for five contests before tearing his ACL. The injury didn't derail his career: Garland was the No. 5 pick. 

We don't see top 10 college football talents -- in a sport much more violent -- missing out at this rate. It's not a crisis, but the pattern is more than a marginal concern.

Hurley runs gamut of emotions after UConn's erratic week

Dan Hurley never thought he'd see a team of his look as lethargic, lazy, uninspired and inept as last week, when UConn fell at home 96-87 to a Saint Joseph's squad picked to finish near the Atlantic 10 basement. The nine-point spread is a disservice to how bad UConn looked; the Huskies were down 46-19 in the first half!

How low did he go? Hurley said he was on the phone that night with his assistants until 3 a.m. -- and then was up in bed until 4:30 a.m., having a one-way conversation with his half-awake wife. 

"You don't sleep after performances like that," Hurley told me Sunday. "Losses like that, they stay with you and cause you to prepare with a level of urgency that a lot of people couldn't understand." 

The practices between the Saint Joe's loss and UConn's 62-59 upset win at home Sunday over then-ranked Florida were vehement.

"I brutalized them the last couple days in practice, probably at levels they've never seen," Hurley said. "The intensity, we coached them hard and pulled no punches. And I was hard on myself. I did a horrible job in the lead-up to Saint Joe's. ... I got after these guys to the point where I felt like I was going to have a stroke."

That's, you know, actually concerning for Hurley's health. Hopefully he can center himself again in a hurry, as he's been battling to do for three years. Hurley puts as much pressure on himself as any coach in America. And after seeing the Huskies void of any heart vs. Saint Joe's -- the game was a complete breakdown of what he wants his teams to stand for -- he smashed the panic button. The Florida win was significant for a UConn team just hoping to be in the NIT picture come early March. 

"When you're in year two of a rebuild ... and you're rebuilding this thing from where it was, that's how you're going to have to win games," Hurley told me. "We're not fully loaded, we're not experienced, they don't understand my system. We're not deep and playing the exact style we'd all like to play."

It's Hurley's job to "put a battery in your back," as he says of coaching his players, and the victory vs. Florida was quite the charge. Remember, UConn (2-1) will be in the Big East a year from now. It's recruiting relatively well. But few things will slow Hurley's heart rate like winning in the style it did over the Gators. Keep an eye on the Huskies the next three days: they play Thursday vs. Buffalo in the quarterfinals of the Charleston Classic, which also has, hello, Florida on the other side of the bracket. 

Duke's outrageous records as No. 1 team in AP Top 25

Duke is back at No. 1 in the AP Top 25, marking its return after finishing there in the 2018-19 regular season. This week is the 143rd time in program history Duke's been No. 1 in the AP poll, which is a record and comfortably ahead of UCLA's 134 weeks at No. 1 and Kentucky's 125. What makes Duke's run even more incredible, though? Let's zoom out: All other ACC schools have combined for 147 weeks at No. 1, meaning Duke has a realistic chance of outpacing the entire conference by the end of this season. Per Duke, this is the 20th season under Mike Krzyzewski Duke's made it to No. 1. The next closest men's coaches in D-I history on this list are Roy Williams and John Wooden, each of whom has 12 seasons to their name.

Duke's next game is Thursday vs. Cal in the Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden. The Blue Devils are 216-34 as the No. 1 team under Krzyzewski. Preposterous.

One more outrageous stat: Duke has played more than 100 games under Coach K as the No. 1 team (250) than as an unranked one (144). He's the best basketball coach ever.

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Mike White is only 42 years old but already in his ninth season as a head coach, with five of those years running Florida's program. He's won 67% of his games (career record 192-95) and has taken Florida to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight push in 2017. He's never lost a first-round NCAA Tournament game and his team's have finished, on average, between third and fourth in league play dating back to his time at Louisiana Tech. Every White-coached team except one -- his first, which had 18 victories -- has won at least 20 games. He's also enrolled Florida's best recruiting class in a generation. White is a good coach. 

I ranked Tennessee No. 41 in my preseason 1-353. Obviously, that looks entirely too low at this point. Tennessee is not slow but speeding -- it's here. They're only this far and only tomorrow leads the way, but at 4-0 and with a wellspring of athletes, the Vols have the goods to be top-three in the SEC again.

Like the RPI before it, the NET ranking does not include games played outside of Division I. This is a blessing and a curse. There is a safeguard for this, though: committee members are free to take every result into account, so even if the NET doesn't ding a team for playing one, two, three non-DI games, subjective critiques can still be applied.

It doesn't make sense on its surface, no. De Sousa was able to successfully appeal his two-year suspension down to just one season, but it's important to keep in mind that De Sousa's case was also tied to the FBI investigation, which is a point of contention and sensitivity with the NCAA and the Committee on Infractions. What's more, the circumstances surrounding Penny Hardaway and the ones surrounding De Sousa are quite different. (De Sousa winning on appeal was just, I will say.)

Final shots

• The only university with a top 15 team in men's basketball, women's basketball and football: Oregon. The Ducks are No. 1 in the latest women's poll, No. 6 in the CFP rankings and No. 11 in men's hoops.
• Virginia and Arkansas are fighting for stingiest defense in America. Through four games, UVA's allowing 41.3 ppg, while the Hogs, under new coach Eric Musselman, are allowing 45.8. The difference is Arkansas (which has faced easier opponents) has a much higher average margin of victory -- and teams are shooting an outrageously low 11.6% from 3-point range vs. the Hogs.
• I warned you in the preseason: Yves Pons' breakout year is comin'. The Tennessee junior is averaging 16.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and is shooting 69.6% from 2-point range. He also does this:

• The worst loss of the season so far? It might come out of the Big Sky. Montana, picked to win the league, lost 74-72 at home to Montana Tech, an average NAIA school that lost by 24 last year to the Griz. More shocking than Evansville over Kentucky.
• NFL news that affects college basketball: Our Jason La Canfora reported this week that the potential proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement between NFL owners and the NFLPA would put the Super Bowl on the final Sunday of February beginning in 2022. If the NFL drags its playoffs all throughout that month, it would obviously ding college hoops' national presence.
• Your leading scorer in college basketball through just over two weeks: Northeastern senior Jordan Roland (31.0). 
• No. 17 Villanova (2-1) received great news this week: touted freshman guard Bryan Antoine has been cleared after needing surgery on his right shoulder in May. He's expected to play at the Charleston Classic, which begins Thursday, when Villanova faces Middle Tennessee. "Our plan is to bring Bryan along slowly," Wildcats coach Jay Wright said. "He's only just returned to practice and the learning curve is steep for any freshman."
• Last Friday, Lipscomb and Duquesne combined for the unthinkable: 1-of-40 from 3-point range. That is bad (2.5%!!) to the point of being beyond aberrational. There is virtually no chance we see another game this season feature two teams shooting so poorly from deep.
• Let the record reflect that maybe the most embarrassing broken-ankles situation of the season came at the hands and feet of WISCONSIN PLAYER. Kobe King!